The Hobbit Finds A New Fili, Elrond Returns, Mirkwood Gets An Elven King

The Hobbit has been filming in New Zealand for several weeks, but we still aren’t entirely sure we know the names of everyone who will be in it. You can get a list of the cast members confirmed to be on set filming so far through our Hobbit database page, and now I’m here to tell you that we’ve just added three more actors that list. Most noteworthy, Elrond is back!

TORN dug up an interview in Stuff in which one of The Hobbit team confirms that Hugo Weaving will reprise his LOTR role of Elrond in the prequel. We’ve known it was their intent to have the character in the movie for some time, but there’d been no official confirmation that he’d actually signed to the picture. Now we have it.

Elrond is a character in the book version of The Hobbit, though he plays a fairly minor role. As Frodo did in Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo and his dwarf companions stop in at Elrond’s Rivendell for a rest, before embarking on the next leg of their journey. Whether his role in the film will be confined to that, or somehow increased is anyone’s guess. It’s believed that at least one of the two upcoming Hobbit films will tell the story of a battle in Mirkwood, which happens off camera in the book. If Peter Jackson’s movie shows that, expect to see a lot of Elrond in the thick of that battle.

The other two new additions to the film are Dean O’Gorman and Lee Pace.

O’Gorman has been hired to play Fili, replacing Rob Kazinsky who left the project suddenly last week.

Lee Pace has been cast as the Elven King Thranduil, a pivotal part of the books and a chief source of Bilbo’s troubles in the dark and dangerous paths of Mirkwood.